Maternal and Paternal Emotion Socialization Practices and Chinese Adolescent Emotional Adjustment

• In Event: Chinese Parenting and Parent-Child Interactions: Roles of Cultural Context

Abstract

Parental emotion socialization (ES) practices play important roles in child and adolescent social and emotional development. However, limited studies have shown both similar and differential effects of maternal and paternal ES on child outcomes. Further, such differential effects on maternal and paternal ES practices may also be contingent on child biological sex. Moreover, ES research has been predominantly conducted in the WEIRD populations. In the socially and economically rapidly changing China, Chinese parents are becoming more and more concerned about their children’s social and emotional wellbeing. More studies are warranted to examine emotion-related parenting and emotional wellbeing among contemporary Chinese families. The current study examined the unique effects of maternal and paternal ES practices on Chinese adolescent social and emotional outcomes (e.g., emotion regulation, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms). We also explored how these effects differed by adolescent biological sex.
Participants were 272 adolescents (145 boys and 127 girls, Mage = 9.77 years, SD = 0.22, Range = 9.40-10.39 years) and their mothers and fathers, from predominantly middle- and high-income families in Nanjing, China. The present investigation is based on the sixth wave of a 15-year longitudinal study of Nanjing urban families, which aimed to parenting and child development in China. Data for the present investigation were questionnaire reports by adolescents and their parents. Both mothers and fathers reported on their emotion socialization practices using a 10-item measure developed based on the emotion coaching work. Adolescents reported on their anger coping and dysregulation using the Children’s Emotion Management Scale: Anger Scale (CAMS; Zeman et al., 2002). Adolescents also reported on their depressive systems using the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI; Kovacs, 1981) and their self-esteem using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory (Rosenberg, 1965).
To examine how maternal and paternal ES practices were associated with adolescents’ emotional adjustment (i.e., anger coping, anger dysregulation, depressive symptoms, self-esteem), path analysis was conducted in Mplus Version 8.1 and multi-group method was used to examine whether the model pathways varied by adolescent biological sex. Model fit was evaluated based on the chi-square test, the comparative fit index (CFI), the root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA), and the standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR). The results showed that, paternal (but not maternal) ES practices were positively associated with adolescents’ anger coping and negatively with anger dysregulation for both girls and boys. Paternal ES practices were associated with fewer depressive symptoms for boys only. Maternal ES practices were associated with higher self-esteem among girls only (see Figure 1).
Our findings showed unique influences from fathers on child emotion regulation (particularly anger regulation) and emotional wellbeing (particularly for boys) during early adolescence. These findings suggest the critical role of fathers in helping both girls and boys regulate an overt emotion, i.e., anger. Further, mothers’ emotional support particularly contributes to girls’ self-perception and evaluation. Mothers may act as important role models for girls in forming a positive view about themselves. An emotionally supportive father may reduce his child risk of developing depressive symptoms.

Authors

• Lixian Cui, NYU Shanghai
  Presenting Author

• Meng-Run Zhang, New York University Shanghai

• Niobe Way, New York University

• Guangzhen Zhang, Southeast University

• Xinyin Chen, University of Pennsylvania

• Sumie Okazaki, New York University

• Hirokazu Yoshikawa, New York University